Need help w/ necromancer build.

[DaChessmastr23]

Hi everyone :xman:
I am making a Poison Nova/Summonin necromancer.. He seems to work fine so far :thumbsup:

When i go to make my next character, it may be a necromancer.. Im wondering.. I was thinking about making a Summon/Corpse Explosion necro. Are Bone Mage's any good? is revive any good? is it better to stick with amplify damage or go on to use decrepify.. please let me know thanks!

[Myrakh-2]

Whether or not to use Mages is a matter of almost endless discussion. It's mostly a preference thing. Without the mages I probably wouldn't be able to take out dclone, and having another 13 minions around to distract monsters never hurts. On the other hand, using a synergy-bug enhanced bonespirit is an option to consider as well, esp. since you'll hardly ever run into physical/magic immune combos.

Revives are ok, but I'm of the "just 1 point and let +skills raise it a bit more" fraction. As a Skelemancer you'll concentrate your +skills in the summoning tree anyway. Most of the time I don't use them --- they are only useful in a few situations, not for general playing.

Use amp damage whenever possible; decrep only vs. act bosses and possibly "nasty" normal bosses (like a fanatism extra strong cursed lister pack or something like that).

EDIT: many players worry too much about their Skeleton Warriors. With a decent number of +skills on them these guys are nasty --- no need to protect them with decrepify, lifetap or a defensive merc type. Support their offensive --- amp damage and might. There is a time for everything, even decrep and lower resist, but the bread-and-butter curse is amp damage.

[Wambat]

Summoner/CE? Whoa, we don't want run headlong into virgin territory! The advice above; to max CE and forget about most of the curses; is quite a common perception, and obviously works for a lot of people, but beware of advice with the words “enough +skills” attached to it. I hardly ever have “enough +skills”; seldom beyond +6; and this isn't really enough for your skellies to rule in hell on their own merits. Unless you can majorly twink your nec; you've got a dozen nec grand charms sitting on t a mule; you will have to learn some finesse in the use of your crowd control skills: DV, Confuse and Attract. I always max DV for pvm on any of my nec builds, it is universally useful in allowing you to enter a situation with the advantage. Also, you will want to use LR any time you are partied with a sorc; no matter how high the damage on your skellies may be, almost any sorc of equivalent level will inflict more damage.

I'm almost getting sick of saying this, but, while if you max your CE you will probably be happy with it, I insist that it is just a form of mental masturbation. CE does the same damage no matter how many points you put into it; yes its range increases, but what does having a 20 yard range do for you? It doesn't penetrate walls or obstacles, so the extra range is wasted in any area rich in such things, and cows and certain areas of act2 are the only areas I can think of that aren't riddled with walls and obstacles. And, think about it, are not the monsters you want to kill with your CE usually pretty close to the corpse anyway? With 1 hard skill point, and +6 to skills from items, you get a radius of over 6 yards; a diameter of over 13 yards; which is almost the width of your view, and any moron can get +6 to skills; hell, even I can.

[Myrakh-2]

but beware of advice with the words “enough +skills” attached to it. I hardly ever have “enough +skills”; seldom beyond +6

Collect some pgems and trade a bit. Trangs, Arm of King Leoric, +3 summon amu and marrows can all be gotten for pgems or lowish runes (I paid a pile of pgems and a lum rune for all of the above), although for a few items in the list you might have to wait a bit.

And it's enough; I've played with a setup like this for ages during last ladder. On this ladder I've already found a summon skiller and a few annis, so I have another +2, but other than that... still trangs. Current setup can be seen here (http://diablo.cable.nu/Syndur.html).

I've been collecting some annis and hellforges since the ladder started (not playing a lot anymore), so I might try to trade for some summon skillers sometimes --- can't have "too many" of these :-).Not quite sure though, since I don't know yet how much they'll cost... and I might decide to try another playchar again.

You'd be surprised how cheap necro gear can be.

As for maxing CE or not, it's ALWAYS a matter of "what do you want to do". I was making a pure skelemancer, so I simply had no other sensible place to put those skillpoints. Max SM, max warriors, max mages, max CE --- that's only 80 points. Curses, 1 teeth, 1 bonearmor --- with only lvl 90 I already have a few skillpoints left.

For a hybrid, it's certainly adviseable to find a good balance between range and skillpoints. If skillpoints are not an issue, maxing CE is worth it --- I don't really have a problem knowing that my CE is blocked by obstacles ("pessimist view"), since I also know it has a large range so it speeds up killing ("optimist view"). It's like the question whether the glass if half empty or half full.

Sometimes I'm not even sure it's just blocked by obstacles... somestimes I get the impression there are invisble obstacles on the map that block CE and nothing else :-(

[mighty.fallen]

I'm almost getting sick of saying this, but, while if you max your CE you will probably be happy with it, I insist that it is just a form of mental masturbation.

so true :lol:

sad, but true...

man, CE is freakin great


edit: btw im really considering nova/summon as well, but thinking of going more revives, cuz their as good (better) than wherever you are, tho i hear bad things, like... like theyre as slow and ******ed as hell :xx:

edit#2: -_- ... ok they censored r.etarded so im gonna have to say...

mentally defficient

or just plain "special"

[cotton]

Well, the truth is that for most of the game, max skeles & mastery + a little amp is enough without ANYTHING ELSE. Even after you fill out all of the curses, add bone armor, and toss in a golem, mast, and summon resist, you're left with a basket full of skill points just begging to be spent. There seems to be some debate as to how to use them (and I would reccomend the fishymancer guide--he discusses the major options better and more concisely than I would,) but really all you are trying to do is make a solid, basic build better/faster/safer. Do it in the way that seems like it would be most fun.